Hot Hot Heat, and an Award!

It’s well over 90º outside. I live at the top of a three family home, where the flat roof and lack of attic does a bang up job of trapping all the building’s heat in my living space. We have a few feeble fans running throughout the apartment, but there’s not much we can do during the hottest part of the day, especially during a heat wave.

The desire to cook is slowing ebbing out of me, so I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that VegNews Magazine has named me one of the top veg blogs of 2008!

You can find me and the 20 other bloggers who won in their July/August issue. I’m going to be at the launch party in San Francisco with my husband on June 26th, so if you’re there and you see a young-faced woman with short blond hair with a huge camera on her shouder, do come over and introduce yourself!

I thought I’d direct you to some no-cook or low-cook recipes in case you’re also caught in the heatwave. Here are some from the archives:

Bummer you’re in a heat wave and don’t feel like cooking. I live on the ground floor of a 2 story building so it’s not too bad when it gets super hot. I can’t imagine being on the top floor. Hope it cools off soon!

Many congrats on the VegBlog award. I wish I could make it to the party with all of the other fellow winners, but the flight from Canada is just too expensive. *sigh* I would have introduced myself to you and told you how much I enjoy your blog. You certainly have the vegan skills to pay the bills.

It’s 97 as I type this. Ugh. If you lack AC, I hope you have reversible window fans. Bring air inside at the coolest time of day, probably just before dawn. Pull the hot air out in the late afternoon and evening. If you can finagle it, a ceiling fan really helps. Keep the blinds and curtains closed when the sun is shining on the windows.

I was gonna have a black bean-corn salad over the weekend. Went to Whole Foods to grab some stuff and ended up stocking up at their deli. Sometimes it’s even too hot to just chop and dice.

Being from Iowa (although transported to Portland, Oregon) I have much empathy for you in those summer heat waves. One recipe I’ve always liked when it gets too hot to do anything other than eat sorbet/ice cream and lay like a slug, has been gazpacho, but it is not tomato season. Although I am a vegetarian and not a vegan I do like reading and being inspired by your website. And congrats on the award. SF will be much cooler. Two things to look forward too.

i’ll be in san fran during the 26th, despite that i live in seattle! yahoo! hopefully i’ll see you.

plus…i’ve just been hired to make a vegan wedding cake for a complete stranger. any suggestions on how to make it/what to put in it/how much to charge/interesting flavor, texture, or decorating ideas? i think you’d be the best person to ask!

Your VegNews acknowledgement is well deserved! My husband is being featured as a musician in the same issue, so we’ll be flying out to SF from DC for the launch party as well! It’ll be great to meet the faces that go along with all these great vegan blogs! I was blogging about my raw transition but have since gone back to eating mostly cooked (but whole foods) diet. All this blogging talk really is inspiring me to get back to it!